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Greek protesters throw coffee at German consul

RNW archive

This article is part of the RNW archive. RNW is the former Radio Netherlands Worldwide or Wereldomroep, which was founded as the Dutch international public broadcaster in 1947. In 2011, the Dutch government decided to cut funding and shift RNW from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science to the ministry of Foreign Affairs. More information about RNW Media’s current activities can be found at https://www.rnw.org/about-rnw-media.

Protesters heckled and threw coffee at Germany's consul to Thessaloniki over civil service layoffs, local officials said on Thursday, forcing riot police to intervene.

The protesters flung water and coffee at consul Wolfgang Hoelscher-Obermaier on the sidelines of a conference on Greek-German trade initiatives, police said.

"Stand united to kick out the Nazis," some of the protesters chanted.

Other members of the German delegation were pelted with eggs by the group that numbered around 300 people, according to police.

Officers moved in to extricate the consul from the crowd, but nobody was injured and no arrests were made, the police said.

The incident came a day after German deputy labour minister Hans-Joachim Fuchtel said that three Greek municipal staffers were required to complete tasks accomplished by a single German.

"Studies show that 3,000 employees are required in Greece for local administration work carried out by 1,000 people in Germany," Fuchtel said.

Fuchtel is a personal envoy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, tasked with working with Greek officials to streamline the operation of local councils.

The junior minister on Thursday said there had been a "misunderstanding" over his comments.

"It was a misunderstanding that was resolved. I feel more pro-Greek than ever," Fuchtel told reporters at the conference.

Greece has been pressed by its international creditors, the EU and the International Monetary Fund, to cut thousands of jobs from its cumbersome civil service to earn bailout loans.

Some 30,000 people protested in Athens last month when Merkel visited Greece. Greek views on Germany, already tainted by the memory of a brutal occupation by Nazi forces during World War II, have been further strained by the eurozone crisis.

Many Greeks see Germany at the forefront of pressure for tough austerity reforms that have plunged the economy in the worst recession witnessed in postwar Europe.

German officials have for their part accused Greece of dragging its feet on reforms and wasting precious time bought by EU-IMF loans, to which Berlin in a major contributor.